A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added me as a favorite author/favorite story or tracked this. It means so, so much. Hope this chapter doesn't let you down.
"What's going on?" Cynthia asked George, who not only had a height advantage, but was now also on his feet. "I don't know, I can't see anything. The Beauxbatons girls-er, students are in their carriage though," He said, brushing hair out of his face.
"Hogwarts students, please stay in your seats, and do not move until you are directed to do so." Dumbledore's voice boomed out as Karkaroff followed Madame Maxime's lead and took his students towards their ship.
"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Cynthia shrieked jumping to her feet trying to get a better look, she was not alone in this action, people all across the houses did this same.
"What was that?"
"Did you see that light?"
"Why'd the all leave?"
"Are they going to tell us ANYTHING?" Questions chorused out across the stands and nearly everyone was standing now.
"Gryffindor students please sit down now!" Professor McGonagall called out across the red wave of students. But no one listened, everyone was focused on black smoke-like funnels crossing the Hogwarts grounds at lightning fast speeds, faster than even Harry Potter's firebolt.
"What's that?" Someone screamed, and then a red flash split the air and several Ravenclaw girls dived out of the way, and the smoke solidified into masked, hooded figures. Then the screams began.
There was movement, and more screaming, and soon people were running out of the stands, before teachers could even attempt to calm them. It wasn't long until the hooded figures began shooting spells off everywhere, and Cynthia felt a hand grabs hers and tug it up. "PREFECTS, TAKE ALL THE STUDENTS THAT ARE NOT OF AGE BACK TO THE CASTLE." Multiple teachers were screaming this, leaving all the of-age students pulling their wands out. But it wasn't quick enough, several younger students were hit by stunning spells, and Cynthia's wand was out before she even consciously recognized that one of those students was Danny. "Stupefy!" Multiple people screamed at once, all missing their targets. And that was it, the hooded figures, who Cynthia instantly recognized as Death Eaters, were off into the maze, running, going up into those smoke like apparitions.
She was on her feet, jumping down the stands trying to get into the maze, she'd followed the one who hit Danny with the stunning spell, and was now running after him. Into the maze she went, and she was thoroughly surprised there weren't any spells keeping non-champions out of the maze. She ran, following a loud cackle, left, then right, another right, and left again. Into a clearing, where a woman was standing laughing. "Ooh, brought a boyfriend?" She giggled and Cyn looked behind her, Fred had followed her in. "No, funny story actually, she's dating my brother, so that wouldn't be the greatest thing for me to do, would it? Expelliarmus!" He yelled but she blocked it. "Oh he's a cute young thing, inn's?" She giggled again, and seemed for a moment almost as deranged as Bellatrix Lestrange. "Cruico!" She said in a girlish voice and Fred fell to the ground. She twisted her wand and Fred yelled out in pain.
"No! Stop it! Stop it now!" Cynthia screamed and a twig snapped behind her, she turned to look behind her, teary eyed, and George pulled out his wand, yelling a spell, but she couldn't recognize what he was saying, she was too busy screaming at the Death-Eater to stop. The woman blocked every single one of George's spells. "CRUCIO!" Cynthia screamed, letting every ounce of anger fill her insides, burning them, melting them even, blaming her father's death on this woman helped. The woman fell to the ground, her wand losing contact with Fred who rolled over, his face cut up and muddy. The woman's laughter was replaced with shrieks, and Cynthia started moving towards her, her feet heavy on the grassy floor, her wand not losing face with the screaming woman. Cynthia was now so close she could see every wrinkle in the death-eaters green eyes.
"Cynthia!" Someone yelled her name. "Cynthia!" She looked away, her tyrant over this woman finished. George was looking at her, with a terrified yet proud look in his eyes. "Go, let's get out," He said, then nodded towards Fred who was still on the ground, and Cynthia grabbed him under his right arm, pull him upwards. Together, they pulled Fred out of the clearing, but stopped when they still heard screams and yells. Cynthia and George looked at each other. "Stay here, stay with Fred, I'll be right back," the tears had returned to her eyes, and she shook her head, biting hard on her lip, "No, no, you stay here, I need to get Danny, and- when Fred wakes up, he'll want to see you, not me," She said, setting Fred gently against a bush. "Oh yes, I'm sure he'll want to see my ugly face." He said, forcing a smile.
"It's his own, and he seems to think pretty damned highly of it."
"Nah, I reckon I'm still better looking than he's," Fred said lightly, and they both looked at him, breaking out into equally large smiles.
"You feeling okay, Freddie?" George asked, and Cynthia took this moment to run, she stood up, pulled her wand out, and ran, ignoring the protesting yells of George.
She was back out into the stadium, and spells were lighting it up in the blackness of the night. "Professor!" She yelled at McGongall, who was backing towards the hedges. "There's one in the maze, and she got Fred Weasley with the cruciatus." McGonagall looked at Cynthia, her wand still pointed at a burly Death-Eater.
"Sutton, take this one," and Cynthia nodded, screaming a stunning spell at the Death-Eater. He blocked it, sending it back her way as McGonagall ran into the maze. "Petrificus Totalus!" She yelled, sending the Death-Eater thudding to the ground. She forced her way through the crowd dodging spells.
A bone-shattering scream broke the air, and then, in the same manner they had arrived, all the hooded figures disappeared. A scene of utter destruction was seen across the field, and Cynthia searched across the petrified and stunned students. There, lying in between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor stands was the tall, skinny brunette boy. She started running towards them, and five feet away, she tripped over something, and landed three feet away from him. Using her elbows to drag herself along the earth, she pulled herself up towards Danny. She wiped dirt away from his face, and trembling, pulled her wand towards his face, "Ennervate," she muttered and wiped a tear away from her face using her shoulder. Danny stirred, and she pulled her sweatshirt off, putting it under his head pushing it several inches off the ground.
She pulled Danny's shirt collar closer to his face, trying to warm his face as the night chilled. He stirred and slowly awoke. and looked around. "I'm bloody cold, what the hell happened?"
"Watch your language little boy," Cynthia said, helping Danny up, "Is your head alright?" He reached up and touched the back of his head.
"Yeah, you've still not explained what happened though," He said picking up Cyn's sweatshirt and handing it to her. "If I knew, I'd tell you, now come with me," She pulled him in closer hugging his arm and pulled him towards the maze. While he was out, she kept checking to see if either McGonagall, George, or Fred had come out of the maze. There'd been no sign of him, and as she pulled Danny into the the maze, she felt her heart beating in her throat.
"Why the hell are we going in there?" Danny asked.
"What time is it?"
"Quarter till. Shouldn't the champions be back now?"
"I don't know, now hurry up," She jerked his arm, and knew she wasn't being far on him, but pulled him in towards the maze.
She followed the same way she'd been before, and on the third turn, she found George and Professor McGonagall crouching over Fred. "Is he okay?" She asked, letting go of Danny and crouching down next to Fred.
"He'll be fine," McGonagall said, standing up. She looked up into the sky, and red sparks appeared in the sky. "That'll be one of the champions, I shall go recover them, in the meantime, get back up to the castle and stay in the common room, we will be recovering the champions, I'm sure." She hurried away in the maze, expertly navigating the maze. "You ready to get up?" George asked his twin, pulling him up, and Danny ran over to help. George nodded at him and together they heaved Fred upwards. There was blood trickling from his left ear.
Pulling Fred up to the castle wasn't' as hard as Cynthia assumed it would be, Fred started walking about halfway up the grounds, and the remaining people started their way up to the castle as well, the champion who shot the red sparks up being Fleur Delacouer, who was quickly taken over to the Beauxbatons carriage. The Gryffindor common room was abuzz, but not in the way that it was after a successful quidditch match, people were talking angrily, questioning everything, muttering angrily, some girls were wondering what would happen to the champions.
They helped put Fred down on the couch after George yelled at some of the first years to get up. Fred argued about sitting down, saying he was fine, but Cynthia said she'd curse him if he moved, so he sat quietly. Seconds later, McGonagall hurried into the room,"Student, please form an orderly line, we will be returning to the stadium, to receive that champions." Everyone stood up, and quickly got into a jumbled sort of line. "Professor, what happened down there? Were those Death-Eaters?" Hermione Granger asked, the name 'Harry' that was once scrawled across her face in paint was now smudged and smeared.
"Professor Dumbledore will be explaining tomorrow before we all depart." McGonagall said, more to the group than to Hermione individually.
As they were trudging out across the fields, Cynthia looked hurriedly across towards the quidditch pitch. "Who do you think won?" She asked, stumbling down a small hill. "It's going to be either Ced or Harry, I don't think Krum would have managed it. He's a great quidditch player, but he's nothing too bright is he?" George said as they once again found their seats on the stands. "Really? You think Harry'd have beaten Krum? I donno, he's only fourteen, isn't he? I don't think he could've gotten through, I'm just worried he's hurt!" She said, biting at the skin around her nails.
There was a flash of blue light, and everyone stood up and began screaming, both Harry and Cedric were back. The Hogwarts band started playing, and Cynthia didn't bother asking how they'd gotten set up so fast. Cheers erupted, and applause thundered through the stadium. Then, the teachers were around Harry, and there were screams, but of terror. Fred and George were already down there, trying to pull Harry off, who had tears streaming down his face.
She realized what it was as soon as Cho Chang started shaking uncontrollably. Cedric Diggory was dead. Harry was now screaming, "He's back! Voldemort's back!" She was frozen where she stood, and she wasn't the only one. No one moved, no one spoke. Amos Diggory was running down, with Arthur Weasley, who Cynthia hadn't realized was there. Harry was being tugged away towards the castle. Cedric Diggory was dead. It seemed as though the world had stopped. Ministry officials were running down towards Cedric. Cynthia moved forward, tripping down some of the stairs, but picking herself up. Cedric Diggory was dead. She ran towards George now. Cedric Diggory was dead. George wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she looked on in horror. Cedric Diggory was dead.
She remembered all the DADA classes they'd had when he'd comforted her while George writhed on the ground in pain. Cedric Diggory was dead. She saw Cho Chang sobbing next to his body. Cedric Diggory was dead. Cedric Diggory was dead.
Cedric Diggory was dead. Despite the attack on the same night. All anyone could think about was Cedric. And as they all dressed in their robes for the final time, no one spoke. It was silent throughout Hogwarts. The quietest it had ever been. And when they sat in the Great Hall, many people's tear stained faces were on the floor. Including Cynthia. She sat in the back of the hall, away from Cho Chang. She held Mathilda's hand, and there were dark rings under both girls' eyes. Mathilda had been crying all night, and as her best friend, and the only true friend in her dorm, she'd taken the night duty and stayed up, calming her. Fred and George sat up towards the front.
Dumbledore made a speech. He told them that the ministry did not want them to know He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back. He spoke of house unity, but Cynthia heard none of this. Mathilda was silently sobbing into her shoulder, practically soaking her robes through. Cynthia felt Mathilda shaking against her arm, and she felt nothing but sorry for her. She couldn't even fathom what it would be like to lose George. To have a whole other part of her simply torn out, never to return. To have a sudden blackness where there had once been so much light. So much joy, so much happiness.
Soon, Cynthia's own tears fell. They were sympathy tears for Mathilda, who would now have a part of her missing. But the thought of losing George tore at her inside. If there was going to be a war, like Dumbledore speculated, she wouldn't let George go. She couldn't think of what it would be like.
Before she could even ponder more on these topics, they were being ushered out of the Great Hall, and everyone was hugging each other goodbye. She found her way over to the Durmstrang groups, after leaving Mathilda in the capable hands of Aria. She searched through the crowd and found the face she was searching for, she ran up to him, "Hello Yohan!" She said, hugging him tightly, "Do write to me, I'd love to keep in touch." She said as she released him.
"I vill keep in touch. Vhere should I send it to?" He asked, and Cynthia handed him a ripped piece of parchment. It had her name simply written on it in longhand, and she beamed at him. Hugging him again, she waved and headed back off to the crowd of Gryffindors near the bridge that took them to the hill which lead to Hogsmeade.
"Did you say goodbye to Yohan, then?" George asked, and Cyn rolled her eyes. "Yes, I did, and we're going to go off to Bulgaria to get married, mind you."
"You're joking?" George deadpanned.
"Nope, you should've made your move!" She said, shaking her head sadly.
"Oh bugger it, let's go get married than?" George said, grabbing her hand.
"Oh yes, I'm sure that'll go down well with my mum, she's always wanted me to run off with a strange ginger with an obvious height advantage on me,"
"Funny, my mum always wanted me to marry an english girl," Cynthia stopped in her tracks and pushed his hand off her shoulder.
"I'm offended." She crossed her arms mock-angrily, and as they walked down to the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade station, she deliberately slammed her trunk into George's heels.
On the train, Cynthia excused herself to go sit with Aria and Mathilda, still trying to cheer her up. Around an hour into the train ride, Eddie Carmichael, Aria's boyfriend, came in and sat down next to her. "Mathilda, if it's any comfort, I heard some Ravenclaws talking about you saying you were pretty an' all," Mathilda gave a half smile and continued staring out the window.
The buildings of London came in what seemed like a quick time, while the darkness sank upon them. The train had been full of chatter about the attack on Hogwarts, and Cynthia was sure that it would have made that day's Daily Prophet. But as she disembarked the train, and grabbed her trunk. She was soon faced with another challenge. She was to be going home with the Weasleys, and she was forever thankful she would not be going home to her mother.
She hugged Mathilda and Aria tightly, and soon slipped away into the crowd, finding the ginger family with ease. "Oh hello dear! Ginny's just told us about what happened last night! I'm horrified it didn't make the news! Have you written home?" Mrs. Weasley asked, after embracing her.
"Oh-er, yeah! Yeah, I've written home, my mum's fine though, I reckon she's sad that I wasn't Cedric," Mrs. Weasley looked at her confused for a second and said, "I'm sure that's not true,dear." Cynthia actually laughed out at this, "Oh no, she told me so in her letter." And it's true, she had, she'd explicitly told her that for Amos Diggory's sake, that Cynthia had been Cedric. To this, Mrs. Weasley gave a concerned look, and both the twins sniggered, and Cyn shot them a broad smile.
Hermione Granger had joined them as well, and instead of going to OtterySt. Catchpole, where the Burrow was, they turned further into Central London, past Oxford Street and to a street called Grimmauld place. Once they had finished the walk there, they stood next to a fence, and Mrs. Weasley handed a paper to Ginny. "Alright Ginny, look at that and memorize it." Soon everyone had seen the note, which read: The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is at 12 Grimmauld Place, London.
Cynthia had heard of the Order of the Phoenix before, her mother had been in it back when You-Know-Who had been power for the first time.
As they all walked through the door, Cyn surprised a gasp. The escaped murderer Sirius Black looked back at her, and Cynthia held her hand tightly on her wand. "Hello Sirius," The twins said in unison, and Ginny smiled. Shocked, she felt someone tug on her arm.
"Mum, we'll be upstairs, and we'll show Cyn her room," George said, and he turned on the spot.
"Was that necessary?" She asked, once the apparation sensation had finished. "No, but it's fun. Anyways, you're sleeping in here with Ginny and Hermione, and we're upstairs." She nodded and put her suitcase down. "So, should I ask why you calmly said 'hello' to a convicted mass murder?" She sat down on the bed and looked between Fred and George.
"Well, he's not."
"He was convicted."
"Yeah but wrongly," Fred said
"It was actually Ron's rat,"
"Who was really an animagus,"
"Named Peter Pettigrew,"
"And he framed Sirius."
"Then he turned into an animagus for thirteen years."
"And came back last year after Sirius and Professor Lupin called him out,"
"Professor Lupin?" Cyn asked shocked.
"Yeah, him, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter, Harry's dad, were the Marauders, you know the ones that made our map,"
"And Peter Pettigrew betrayed Harry's parents to You-Know-Who,"
"So yeah," George said, sitting beside Cyn.
"Wow." She said, mulling over the information,"So, what're we going to do this summer then?" She said, laying back on the bed, keeping her legs firmly on the floor.
"Dunno, if mum lets us, we can go explore London I s'pose, not sure if it'll be fun, there's no where to play any quidditch, which sucks."
"Yes, that's what you would be concerned with, not the fact that there are loads of interesting museums and historical sites." They both groaned, and she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, we wanna go do that," Fred said sarcastically, and a thumping noise came up the stairs.
"Oi, you three, dinner," Ron said, poking his head through the door and nodding down.
"Alright Ronniekins," Fred said.
"You're soo nice to your poor brother." Cynthia said, rolling over to face George who was still laughing. Fred scoffed and turned out of the room, obviously still waiting on the landing, there was no way he was going to walk down those stairs. George propped himself up on his elbow, and leaned into her, his lips slightly grazing hers, and then he jumped up.
"Food," was all he said, then he practically jumped out of the room, and several seconds and a loud crack later, he was down for dinner. Cynthia took her time going down, listening to the creaking of every old stair.
Moments later, the smell of roast chicken ensnared her, and she was immediately offering help to Mrs. Weasley, who quickly turned it down.
As she changed into her nightdress, she heard a cracking on the landing. Hermione and Ginny were down in Ron's room, as Mrs. Weasley was letting them stay up later than night. "We're coming in, don't scar me," Fred said, as he pushed open the door. But Cyn was already sitting on her bed, putting socks on. "You know you wouldn't be scarred," she said airily.
"For the pure fact that my brother is in here right now, I'm going to have to say I would be," he winked and she laughed. George sat down on the bed and Cynthia leaned forward. Fred threw himself down on Hermione's bed and Cyn watched him.
Fred decided to go down and annoy Ron, and winking at his brother, left the room, shutting the door behind him. Before George had the chance to turn around, Cyn pulled him up towards her, put her hands on his face, and kissed him roughly. He pulled himself up, and flipped her over, so her head was on the pillow. She could tell he'd locked the door and put a silencing charm on it, as he threw his wand to the other bed. Their hands were everywhere: hair, body, face, it was all a flurry.
Heavy footsteps came up the floor, and George quickly jumped up, undid the spells he did on the door, winked at Cyn, and disapparted, possibly down to Ron's room, leaving Cynthia to pull on her dressing gown, throw herself under the covers, and extinguished the lamp.
The morning light shone through the blinds, and Cynthia slowly got up, her back aching. She slowly slid into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and was soon halfway down the stairs, offering to help make breakfast. ''Oh, dear, if you'll just get the bacon going, we're going to have some of the Order here for breakfast." Smiling while she nodded, Cynthia flicked her wand and started the bacon up.
"Do you mind asking your mother if she'd like to rejoin the Order?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Sure. Uh, sorry, I don't mean to intrude amongst things I shouldn't be, but why is the Order restarting again?" She leaned against the counter, looking at the dusty cabinets.
"Ah. Well, rem, that's interesting. Uh, Professor Dumbledore told us, that on the night Cedric Diggory died, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named returned," Cynthia nodded.
"Yeah, he told us that. But, why would the Order start up now? I mean, if he's being intelligent about it, he'd wait, build up the past splits. Obviously, the Ministry isn't going to want to press this, but Harry and Dumbledore are, so that would cause splits between us all. So he'll wait, won't he? Let it rise, maybe there will be a few disappearances, a few deaths, or, a few more, that is. He wants terror doesn't he? Isn't that the smartest way to go?" She pushed hair out of her face.
"That was a very astute observation, Cynthia," Remus Lupin said, standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
"Oh! Hello Professor!" She said brightly, as brightly as she could at eight in the morning.
"How are you, Remus?" Mrs. Weasley said, sending a cup of tea over to a seat on the long wooden table.
"I've been better, I've definitely been better." He said, sitting at the seat and picking up the cup.
Loud thuds came from upstairs, and minutes later, Ron came down, followed by Fred, and then George, who looked like he'd slept on the floor, his hair was a mess. Suppressing a giggle, Cyn helped put the food out, and a short minute later, Hermione and Ginny came down. Eventually, Mrs. Weasley forced Cynthia to sit down to eat, so she did, slowly eating, not entirely hungry. "Are you going to tell me what happened two nights ago?" Lupin said, drinking tea.
"Er. What do you want to know?" Ginny asked, looking very uncomfortable.
"Well, did the Death-Eaters attack students, for starters, I suppose?"
"Uh, yeah." Ron said, then continued shoveling eggs into his mouth. Mrs. Weasley looked horrified.
"And did either of you get hurt?" Cyn and George looked at each other, then at Fred.
"What was that?" Lupin asked, looking between them.
"What do you mean?" Fred asked, looking completely serious.
"Oh, come now, I was friends with Sirius and James, you don't think I would ever have missed a look like that, do you?" George chuckled, and Cynthia's eyes glazed over and she fell into a daze.
"Fred had the cruciatus put on him." George said, looking at his food, as if it were art work, and knowing George, he probably through it was. Mrs. Weasley slammed her teacup down on the table, shaking it thoroughly. "What?" She shrieked, and all the non-gingers at the table, looked away. "When were you going to tell me?" She sad shrilly, and at that exact moment, Mr. Weasley, and Sirius came into the room, looking like they'd been working very hard on something not very safe.
"What have they done this time?" Sirius asked, sitting at the table. She seemed to ignore this, and looked between her children.
"So? When were you planning on telling me?"
"Honestly mum, we didn't want to worry you." Ron said, and the twins nodded.
"You. Weren't. Planning. On. Telling. Me?" She said through clenched teeth.
"It's fine, mum, it's fine," Fred said, grabbing toast.
"Yeah, Cyn got the Death-Eater though, I think it was Alecto Carrow, I remember her from the posters." George said, and Cyn started tugging at a thread on her sweater.
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Weasley asked, still staring down her children.
"Well, she took her down, didn't she?" Fred said, and Cynthia shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her gaze still down on her sweater.
"You dueled with her, Cynthia?" Mrs. Weasley asked, and Cyn slowly looked up at her.
"Uh, yeah, I suppose so," she said looking at her hands.
"How exactly did you beat her?" Lupin asked her, watching her face,"No, no, tell me exactly what happened."
"Um. Well, they sort of came, and it was a bit confusing, and the teachers had all the under-age students get out, and I saw my brother, and as he was leaving, a woman in a cloak hit him with a stunning spell and he was knocked out. And you know, I was angry, I don't like it when people mess with my family, er, so I chased after her, and she went into the maze, which was surprising, you'd think they'd have some spell on it so you can't get in, but anyways, I went it, and sort of followed her into this clearing type thing, and you know, she started taunting me, and then Fred came up behind me, and she put the cruciatus curse on him, and then George came up seconds later, I think, and then I was angry, really angry, and so I put the cruciatus on her, and you know. That's it." She said, looking around at the table, and very embarrassed at her inarticulateness.
"You put a full cruciatus on her?" Sirius Black asked, and she nodded, regardless of what George and Fred had explained to her last night, she still felt odd talking to him.
"Oh, Cynthia, that's so sweet of you dear, thank you so much," Mrs. Weasley said, beaming at her.
After breakfast, the twins convinced a very-worried Mrs. Weasley to let the kids go out and walk around London, and soon, they were walking about in a park called Regent's Park, and loads of children screamed and ran about. "Oi, you three, off!" Fred said, and shooed them off. "We'll find you in two hours then?" Ron yelled over his shoulder, and Fred just turned back. "Are you still looking in that bloody book?" He asked, nodding to Cynthia, who had asked Hermione to help her buy a guide book to London.
"Yes, I am, and I think I know we're we should go." She slammed the book close and put it in her bag.
"You're not taking us to any museums are you?" George said, looking genuinely scared.
"No, there's a place, just thirty minutes near here, it's like an outdoor market I suppose," after seeing the look exchanged between the twins, she quickly said, "Or, we can get on the train and go down to this place called Camden Town, if we can figure out how to use it." She dragged them towards the nearest train station, which was called Hyde Park Corner. After some struggle with the machines, they were finally through, and sitting on an underground train.
"Dad would be freaking out over this." George said, as Cyn tried to understand what they were doing.
"Right, okay, I think we get off here," she said, standing up and exiting the train, the twins close behind her.
Camden Town was one of the scariest places Cyn had ever been. There were loads of people with multiple piercings and tattoos and insane clothes and overly high shoes. After making it ten feet down the street, she turned and looked at George, "Do you want to go back?" She asked, and they both nodded, so sliding into one of the alleyways, then disapparated, back to Hyde Park.
"Alright, we've got an hour and a half, what're we going to do?" George asked and Cynthia sat under a tree. "Well, you two shot down what I thought was interesting, so come up with something." She leaned against the tree and pulled the guide book back out of her bag, flipping it open to a page about a place called 'Swiss Cottage'. "Well, I dunno, London's not very interesting is it?" Fred said and Cyn rolled her eyes.
"I'm not going in a bloody boat!" She said as Fred and George dragged her by her arms towards a lake.
"Oh yes you are." Fred said and pulled the tickets out of his pockets, handing them to a man who showed them to a pedalo, and asked Cyn if she was over thirteen. Fred and George laughed loudly as the sat in the front of the boat, and Cyn said to him, "I'm seventeen."
"Can I have some ID?" He asked, looking suspiciously at her.
"I don't carry ID with me! I am seventeen!" She said angrily.
"I'm sorry, but I need so ID, otherwise you're going to need to wear a lifejacket."
"What? Oh, George, tell him I'm seventeen." George recovered from laughing and said, "Mate, she's five months older than we are." The attendant nodded turned away, and Cynthia glowered at the twins who had melted back into laughter.
"Shut it." She said, sitting in the back of the boat.
After they found Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who seemed to have had a bit more fun going around London, they made their way back to Grimmauld Place. When they got in, Mrs. Weasley hurried them upstairs, as the Order of the Phoenix were meeting in the kitchen.
Night fell, and the Order still had not concluded their meeting. Eventually, they heard people leaving, and the first down were George and Fred who apparated, and George grabbed Cyn's hand before he twisted on the spot. They were all introduced to the Order, and Cynthia was shocked to see Dumbledore and Snape, leaving the house. She said nothing about it though, simply staying quiet through dinner, falling into some of her usual trances.
As the weeks slowly passed by, Mrs. Weasley told them all about the arrival of Harry Potter in the coming weeks.
As the anger inside him cooled off from his recent outburst, a knock came on the door. Hermione weakly called out, "Come in!" and the door barely opened and a girl slipped in. Harry recognized her from Hogwarts, she was two years ahead of him. She was short, skinny, but rather curvy, and had long, stomach grazing mahogany hair. She smiled lightly at him, and Hermione took the initiative to introduce them, "Uh Harry, this is Cynt-Cyn Sutton, her mum's a part of the Order, and um, she's George's girlfriend," Right, that's where he recognized her from, from that time before the Yule Ball when she and George had had a row in the common room. She half waved and smiled, "Hi- uh, they're going to be down in about-" A large crack shuttered through the room and Hermione jumped, suddenly flanked by Ron's older brothers, Fred and George. "Never mind then," Cyn said, leaning against the wall.
"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly-red haired as Ron, though skinnier and much taller.
"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple fifty miles away who didn't hear you."
"You two passed your apparition tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily.
"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh colored string.
"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," said Ron.
"Time is galleons, little brother," said Fred. "Anyway, Harry you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, holding up the string, which Harry now saw was trailing out onto the landing. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."
"You want to be careful," said Ron, staring at the ear. "If mum sees one of them again…"
"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred.
The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.
"Oh hello, Harry!" said Ron's younger sister, as Cynthia stepped out of her way, "I thought I heard your voice."
Turning to Fred and George she said, "It's no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."
"How d'you know?" said George, mooting for Cynthia to come sit next to him on the bed. And she did, tripping over her own feet as she went.
"Tonks taught me how, if you just throw something at it, and if it doesn't make contact, it's got a charm on it," she said, shrugging.
They spent the next thirty minutes filling Harry in on what he'd missed, including the row that Mr. Weasley and Percy had had, and Cynthia watched Harry and Ginny's interaction with great interest, it reminded her of how she and George used to act around each other: awkward but still comfortable, at that stage where they both liked each other, but didn't accept it quite yet, or realize it.
While they walked down to dinner, Cynthia leaned in to George and whispered in his ear, "Has Ginny ever had a crush on Harry?" To this, George actually laughed. "Yeah, probably still does, ever since third year, well our third year, that is, I suppose that's his first year," George said shrugging.
"Huh, okay," Cyn replied biting her lip, beginning to realize that she had been right.
Throughout the whole of dinner, kept glancing over at Cynthia and George, not that this was anything new, she always kept a close on the pair of them during meal times. "So Cyn, have you managed to convince Patti and Zak to join the order?" Bill Weasley asked her.
"Oh um, well I've been trying, and I think Zak said he's willing, but my mum keeps trying to get Patti out of it, what with she's going to be busy with for the next few months, but you know, I'm sure she'll come around. My mum always talked about the Order with loads of pride when I was younger, so she'll have to let Patti later,"
"Doesn't surprise me Zak's going to join, he liked jumping head first into things, I remember that from school. But what's Patti going to be busy with? She's not working again is she?" He asked, his dragon tooth earring dangling dangerously close to his shoulder.
"Oh, oh, I thought I told you. Um, no, she's not working again, she'd like to, but she can't get work anywhere, um, she's actually expecting, they found out about a month ago, I could've sworn I told you lot," Cynthia answered, breaking into a smile.
"That's great! So you're going to be an aunt then?" Cynthia laughed and shook her head.
"Nah, I think Patti's a bit scared of me going off the deep end, especially after last year."
"What do you mean especially after last year?"
"Well, I had no problem putting the cruciatus curse on Alecto Carrow did I? Apparently I looked like I had enjoyed it in a sick way." Cynthia said, sinking back in her chair.
"Well, hadn't she just cursed your brother?" Bill asked, trying to rationalize it.
"Uh, no, she'd just put the cruciatus on Fred, actually, her brother, Amycus cursed Danny," Cynthia said, dropping her voice as she saw Mrs. Weasley look over at them.
"But that's fine though, isn't it? I don't see why Patti would be scared, what're you going to do, curse her kid?"
"Ah, well I also hit that Malfoy kid with a kneecap-reversal hex, but I don't think anyone really knew that was me," she said, breaking some bread.
"That was you?" George asked clearly looking amused.
"You were standing right next to me."
"i thought that was Goyle's hex that rickashayed." Fred said from next to his brother.
"Thanks, now you're demoting me to a troll, thanks you two." Bill laughed and then said,"Well, tell your sister and Zak I say congrats!" He then turned back to Lupin and Tonks who were talking quietly about God only knows what.
"Congrats for what?" Fred asked, watching his mother.
"Ah, well they're, well, she's pregnant, I swear did I not tell any of you? I thought I did."
"Uh, no, you didn't. But that's great! So are you feeling old yet?" Fred asked.
"What do you want?" Cynthia said sighing.
"What do you mean, we don't want anything." George said defensively, but Cyn saw right through it.
"You're being way to nice about this," she said matter-of-factly.
"We don't want anything'-"George started.
"Do you want to test one of our Skiving Snackboxes?" Fred interrupted and got an angry glare from George.
"Uh yeah, alright, as long as they don't kill me, I've got a couple grudges to settle before then," Cynthia said, taking a sip of her butterbeer.
After the dishes had been cleared, Sirius, who Cynthia was still warming up to, asked Harry why he'd not been interrogating anyone and everyone about what's been happening with You-Know-Who and the Order. Soon, Mrs. Weasley was relenting to Sirius and letting Harry stay in the room, but ordering all her kids out. Both Fred and George argued back, and Lupin vouched for them, but she made sure Ron and Ginny were out, until Harry told Ron he'd tell him everything. Anger clearly on Mrs. Weasley's face, she let Ron stay, so Ginny argued back as well.
"No! Ginny! Upstairs! NOW!" She yelled at her only daughter. Deciding to ease the tension, Cynthia stood up and said to Ginny, "Come on Ginny, let's go upstairs, you don't need to hear this stuff at your age," Ginny shot her an angry look, but Cyn silently pleaded for her to come up, and so they did. Walking in silence up the creaky old stairs. When they reached the room they were sharing with Hermione, Ginny shut the door and turned on Cynthia, "You're not honestly going to keep me from hearing that, are you?"
"Are you kidding me? No!" She said, pulling out an extendable ear from her pillow case.
"Where'd you get that?" Ginny asked, suspiciously.
"Your brother gave it to me."
"Why?" She asked. As far as she was concerned, Ginny did not know her and George were together, which was a remarkable feat, considering how quickly gossip spread at Hogwarts.
"I dunno, s'pose he wanted me to have it, she said, walking to the door, opening it, and tossing it over the railing, then retreating back in.
"Don't they have the imperturbable charm on it?" She asked.
"Nope, didn't you see Fred take it off while George cleaned up the mess they made?"
"Oh that's what he was doing!" She said, inching closer to the ear to hear what was being said.
Ten minutes later there was a loud crack and Cynthia screamed, only to have her mouth covered quickly. "Dammit you two!" She had after she had recovered her breath.
"Mum told us to tell you to go to bed, and 'Mione should be coming up in a moment," Fred said to the both of them.
"See you in the morning," George said, and Cynthia caught his wink before they both vanished with a loud CRACK. Seconds after the doors opened and Hermione whisked in.
"What'd they tell him?" Cynthia asked Hermione as she pulled a nightdress out of the drawer she was sharing with her and Ginny.
"Nothing really knew, You-Know-Who's apparently trying to get a weapon, something they think we have, but they don't really know what it is. They think Voldemort's been quiet because Harry messed it up for him, that You-Know-Who was supposed to kill him last year" She sighed, and Cynthia walked to the adjoining bathroom to change quickly, before coming out, and pulling out a book. Just as she opened it, Mrs. Weasley popped her head in the door, "Night girls, in the morning we should be working on the doxies I found earlier today." She seemed to be less angry than she was at dinner, but shot Ginny an angry look as she closed the door.
She slowly got dressed in the morning, she was awake before everyone else, as usual. She'd been waking extremely early that summer, around six in the morning on good days. However, the smell of breakfast was already wafting up the old house, and she followed the smell down into the kitchen, where she found Molly Weasley sitting at the table across from Sirius, who was reading the Daily Prophet, an angered look on his face. "Good morning," Cynthia said slowly, and Mrs. Weasley looked up quickly. "Oh good morning dear, would you like some breakfast?"
"Not yet, thanks, but do you need any help making it?"
"No, but do you mind going up and waking everyone up? Might as well get an early started on cleaning today."
"Absolutely," as she turned, she tried to see the headline of the Prophet, but was unsuccessful, she'd have to check it later.
"Get up, you two!" She said loudly leaning against the dresser in the room Fred and George were sleeping in. Fred merely rolled over and George didn't even manage that. "If you don't get up, I'm giving your mother your Skiving Snackboxes," she said, louder this time. Neither twin moved. Sitting on the edge of George's bed, careful not to sit on his long legs, she pulled out her wand. Rolling her eyes as she did it, she quietly said, "Evanesco," pointing her wand at Fred's pillow, then did the same to George's pillow. Standing up as she admired her handiwork, she again leaned on the dresser, as the two teenage boys in front of her groaned and reluctantly opened their eyes. "I swear, you two could sleep through a bloody hurricane," she said, her scottish accent thicker. A shocked Fred jerked the covers up towards his chin, while she laughed and left the room, practically gliding out.
Once downstairs again, she smiled meekly at Harry, who was already up. "Heard about your court date." She said, she even looked up to him, and he was pretty short as is, "You scared?"
"Er. Yeah, I s'pose." He said, flattening his hair down awkwardly.
"You'll be fine, my dad used to work for Amelia Bones, she's really fair about these things, my sister got into trouble when she was in fifth year for accidentally turning me into a cat, and she was fine with it."
"I'd love to see you as a cat," George said from behind Cynthia, and she punched his arm hard before turning back to Harry, "But you'll be fine, I'm sure."
In the kitchen, she finally got her hands on a copy of the Prophet, and began wishing she hadn't. She simply stared at the page. Set it down, and walked back upstairs.